Cordkillers 202 - B.E.S. - Brushwood Electronics Shenanigans

The circuses of internet and terrestrial content. C.E.S. product announcements. Animaniacs, David Letterman, Runaways, and Game of Thrones will all return! With special guest Roberto Villegas ( http://cosmicradio.tv )

FX chief: Even peak TV can be a 'sideshow' to internet- FX Networks CEO John Landgraf speaking to TV Critics Friday- "To be honest, as incredible as television's become, it sometimes feels to me like a sideshow in what has become a daily three-ring media circus."- The total number of cable, broadcast and streamed series hit an estimated high of 487 in 2017,up 7%.- The 117 streamed series from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu etc. rose 30 percent, over 2016.

Tivo’s new TV platform will combine cable and streaming- TiVo is launching a streaming service marketed at TV service providers called the Next-Gen Platform. The service offers cloud DVR plus access to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. A cable TV service for instance could use it to provide linear, over-the-top (OTT), on-demand and DVR platforms. The service can tun on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Android TV as well as smart TVs, cable boxes and mobile devices.

What to Watch

'Animaniacs' Revived at Hulu With 2-Season Order- Animaniacs is coming back with a series on Hulu starting in 2020. Steven Spielberg will executive produce alongside Warner Bros. Animation president Sam Register, Amblin Television co-presidents Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. Hulu also gets the library rights to Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, the subsequent Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain and the complete Tiny Toon Adventures collection.

TCL's 6-Series Roku TVs sport a metal design, 4K and Dolby Vision HDR- TCL announced its 6-series Roku TVs with with a new Roku TV voice remote, 802.11ac WiFI, Ethernet and three HDMI 2.0a ports. There's also the 5-series without the metal styling of the six. TCL also announced the Roku Smart Soundbar, which can be paired to a TV or simply be used as a standalone speaker.

How Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix Fared at the 2018 Golden Globes- At the Golden Globes, Amazon's Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won Best TV musical or comedy and best actress. Hulu's Handmaid's Tale won for best TV drama and best actress. HBO's Big Little Lies won best limited series along with best actress, best actor, supporting actress. Netflix only won for best actor in a musical or comedy with Aziz Ansari for Master of none.

Altice drops Starz, directs customers to its online service- Cable company Altice dropped Starz over a carriage fees dispute and is directing its customers to sign up for Starz online service instead. Altice is replacing Starz with Hallmark Drama, Cowboy Channel, Sony Movies and MGM HD. About 1 million Altice customers subscribed to Starz according to Reuters.

Amazon Kills Unpopular Anime Strike Service- Amazon has dropped its $4.99 a month Anime Strike add-on channel and rolled the movies and shows into the general Amazon Prime service. Amazon also added the option to add CBS All Access to Amazon Prime for $9.99 a month commercial free. The $5.99 a month version that includes commercials won't be available on Amazon for a few months.

SyFy greenlights George R.R. Martin space opera TV series- SyFy has greenlit Nightflyers for production based on the George R. R. Martin novella. Jodie Turner-Smith (The Last Ship) will star as Melantha Jhirl, with Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire) as Dr. Agatha Matheson. Eoin Macken, David Ajala, Sam Strike, Maya Eshet, Angus Sampson and Brian F. O'Byrne also star. The show will air on SyFy in the US and Netflix on the rest of the world.

Netflix is officially making a ‘Bright’ sequel- Bright was a feature-length movie starring Will Smith that appeared on Netflix in December. The movie scored 28% on Rotten Tomatoes but 88% from the general audience. So Netflix has announced it will make a sequel.

Dispatches from the Front

Hi guys,I thought I would add a few thoughts from one of your old guys listening to the show since the beginning of Frame Rate. I wanted to add a few thoughts about SFS - Subscription Fatigue Syndrome. Though I am sure I could afford most of the services out there now, I know that I will not subscribe to much more than Netflix and unless Amazon screws up really badly, I will always have Prime for all of it's benefits besides the streaming service. I doubt I would subscribe to the upcoming Disney service, and might miss out on a few Marvel movies, but it would be only a small loss to me. I will never use any Apple service because I have an extreme distaste for everything the company taints. Hulu lost me as a possible customer years ago with their brilliant pay for the right to watch commercial plan. CBS All Access may be the only way to watch Star Trek Discovery, but since that is the only thing there I might remotely be interested in, it is massively overpriced to me.And that pretty much nails down my fatigue problem, too much money for too few shows spread across too many services. I think I will keep watching what comes to Netflix and Amazon a year or more after they run their course on some other service, and if they don't show up there, I'll never know what I missed, and will feel much less fatigued.

This has come up on the show before, my wife says she can’t tell the difference between HD, 4K or HDR. That said, we were in Target (not even looking at TVs) when she sees an OLED TV and stops dead in her tracks! Long story short, I know what I’m getting next Christmas! ✌️

- Rob

I got an email from MoviePass that was a blanket blast. They said lots of people got double or wrongly billed. Hopefully it works out. I am loving MoviePass and will probably see all the best picture nominated movies this year. I may actually watch an award show (antenna TV) because I am more invested.

- Sean

Tom and Brian,

Thanks for all you do. Since I moved in to an apartment with a community antenna in 1990 I've never paid for Cable TV. Thanks for all of the entertainment and information along the way.